Stephanie, Mira, and Michael came up with the idea to remember Chandra through her fabulous cooking and hospitality. So Steph sent out this email:
Dear foodie friends of (La)Chandra,
We are all grieving right now. It’s hard to know what to do. But cooking some of Cha’s favorite foods feels right. And it also feels right to share recipes with one another.
Mira, Michael (aka Phoophey), and I would like to create a cookbook of Chandra’s signature recipes to share. As friends who enjoyed her extraordinarily generous hospitality and culinary sophistication, we’d like to preserve the dishes, menus, and photos that remind us of the outrageous dinners we shared over the years in many different cities.
Mira has volunteered to collate and assemble the cookbook for self-publication: please email her the distinctive recipes that remind you most of Chandra with appropriate bibliographic citation if published (or links if your recipe is available online) with a few lines about why this recipe reminds you of Chandra. When did you cook this dish together? What country? Who else was there?
Some of us enjoyed her glamorous table without being cooks ourselves. Please feel free to send any dining-themed photographs with Chandra, including the date (if known), a description of the occasion or a remembrance of your friendship with Chandra.
Chandra Cooks (2019) is the result of the collaboration and photos from friends and family. A complete preview of the cookbook is available here in PDF format. If you’d like to order a hard-bound copy of your own, please follow this link. (If you do not have a Shutterfly account, the site will prompt you to create one.)
We hope you will feel Chandra’s presence through her words and recipes, and the memories and photos from all the friends she gathered.